135.106 - HEALTHY FAMILIES PROGRAMS -- HOPES-HFI PROGRAM.
135.106 HEALTHY FAMILIES PROGRAMS -- HOPES-HFI
PROGRAM.
1. The Iowa department of public health shall establish a healthy
opportunities for parents to experience success (HOPES)--healthy
families Iowa (HFI) program to provide services to families and
children during the prenatal through preschool years. The program
shall be designed to do all of the following:
a. Promote optimal child health and development.
b. Improve family coping skills and functioning.
c. Promote positive parenting skills and intrafamilial
interaction.
d. Prevent child abuse and neglect and infant mortality and
morbidity.
2. The HOPES-HFI program shall be developed by the Iowa
department of public health, and may be implemented, in whole or in
part, by contracting with a nonprofit child abuse prevention
organization, local nonprofit certified home health program or other
local nonprofit organizations, and shall include, but is not limited
to, all of the following components:
a. Identification of barriers to positive birth outcomes,
encouragement of collaboration and cooperation among providers of
health care, social and human services, and other services to
pregnant women and infants, and encouragement of pregnant women and
women of childbearing age to seek health care and other services
which promote positive birth outcomes.
b. Provision of community-based home-visiting family support
to pregnant women and new parents who are identified through a
standardized screening process to be at high risk for problems with
successfully parenting their child.
c. Provision by family support workers of individual
guidance, information, and access to health care and other services
through care coordination and community outreach, including
transportation.
d. Provision of systematic screening, prenatally or upon the
birth of a child, to identify high-risk families.
e. Interviewing by a HOPES-HFI program worker or hospital
social worker of families identified as high risk and encouragement
of acceptance of family support services.
f. Provision of services including, but not limited to, home
visits, support services, and instruction in child care and
development.
g. Individualization of the intensity and scope of services
based upon the family's needs, goals, and level of risk.
h. Assistance by a family support worker to participating
families in creating a link to a "medical home" in order to promote
preventive health care.
i. Evaluation and reporting on the program, including an
evaluation of the program's success in reducing participants' risk
factors and provision of services and recommendations for changes in
or expansion of the program.
j. Provision of continuous follow-up contact with a family
served by the program until identified children reach age three or
age four in cases of continued high need or until the family attains
its individualized goals for health, functioning, and
self-sufficiency.
k. Provision or employment of family support workers who have
experience as a parent, knowledge of health care services, social and
human services, or related community services and have participated
in a structured training program.
l. Provision of a training program that meets established
standards for the education of family support workers. The
structured training program shall include at a minimum the
fundamentals of child health and development, dynamics of child abuse
and neglect, and principles of effective parenting and parenting
education.
m. Provision of crisis child care through utilization of
existing child care services to participants in the program.
n. Program criteria shall include a required match of one
dollar provided by the organization contracting to deliver services
for each two dollars provided by the state grant. This requirement
shall not restrict the department from providing unmatched grant
funds to communities to plan new or expanded programs for HOPES-HFI.
The department shall establish a limit on the amount of
administrative costs that can be supported with state funds.
o. Involvement with the community assessment and planning
process in the community served by HOPES-HFI programs to enhance
collaboration and integration of family support programs.
p. Collaboration, to the greatest extent possible, with other
family support programs funded or operated by the state.
q. Utilization of private party, third party, and medical
assistance for reimbursement to defray the costs of services provided
by the program to the extent possible.
3. It is the intent of the general assembly to provide
communities with the discretion and authority to redesign existing
local programs and services targeted at and assisting families
expecting babies and families with children who are newborn through
five years of age. The Iowa department of public health, department
of human services, department of education, and other state agencies
and programs, as appropriate, shall provide technical assistance and
support to communities desiring to redesign their local programs and
shall facilitate the consolidation of existing state funding
appropriated and made available to the community for family support
services. Funds which are consolidated in accordance with this
subsection shall be used to support the redesigned service delivery
system. In redesigning services, communities are encouraged to
implement a single uniform family risk assessment mechanism and shall
demonstrate the potential for improved outcomes for children and
families. Requests by local communities for the redesigning of
services shall be submitted to the Iowa department of public health,
department of human services, and department of education, and are
subject to the approval of the Iowa empowerment board in consultation
with the departments, based on the practices utilized with community
empowerment areas under chapter 28. Section History: Recent Form
92 Acts, 2nd Ex, ch 1001, § 419; 97 Acts, ch 138, §1; 98 Acts, ch
1206, §10; 2004 Acts, ch 1086, §35; 2006 Acts, ch 1157, §15
Referred to in § 232.69